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Time’s up for the equal time rule
Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines “anachronism” as a person or thing that is chronologically out of place, “especially: one from a former age that is…
Blog
Otherwise Objectionable episode 6: ‘The Rest of the World’
The sixth episode of Otherwise Objectionable, the narrative-driven podcast that tells the true story of Section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, focuses on…
Blog
How valuable will anonymous comments be to the Ferguson FTC?
Comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its “Inquiry on Tech Censorship” are due next month on May 21, 2025, and the public has…
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USA Today
No, the Internet Is Not About to Be Destroyed
The headlines regarding the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming vote on “net neutrality” regulations suggest impending doom. “FCC Is Revving Up to Destroy the Internet…
The Washington Examiner
Millions of Phony Public Comments Muddle FCC’s Net Neutrality Vote
The Washington Examiner covers Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s decision to move forward with Thursday’s vote to repeal Net Neutrality regulations. Federal Communications…
Blog
Melugin Takes on 3 Common Net Neutrality Myths
If we want real Internet neutrality, we need less government, not more. CEI's Jessica Melugin dispels three common myths about Net Neutrality.
Comment
CEI, ICLE, and Tech Freedom Give Comments to Federal Communications Commission on Charter Cable Merger
VIEW FULL DOCUMENT AS PDF Introduction and Summary On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the International Center for Law &…
Blog
FCC Chairman Pai Correct to Dismiss Net Neutrality Vote Delay
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has brought significantly more transparency to this process than was present when the Obama-era net neutrality regulations were passed two years…
Blog
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai joins CEI and other Experts to Discuss the Future of the Internet
Yesterday the R Street Institute and the Lincoln Network hosted The Future of Internet Freedom, featuring Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai,…
The New York Times
Net Neutrality Hits a Nerve, Eliciting Intense Reactions
The New York Times covers the proposed rollback of Net Neutrality regulations. It usually doesn’t take much to get people on the internet worked…
Blog
State Governments Want to Tax Your Cyber Monday Deals
Sales tax can only be applied to purchases when the seller has a physical presence in the buyer’s state. …
Blog
This Thanksgiving, I’m Thankful for Hysterical Net Neutrality Advocates
Do you want private entities in a marketplace in charge or do you want government regulators calling the shots?…
Blog
Federal Communications Commission Moves Forward with Net Neutrality Reform
Details of the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to roll back Obama-era net neutrality regulations are circulating this week.
Blog
Predictable Attempts to Extend Government Control over Internet Content
Technology companies should take this opportunity to fight against harmful government restriction on business practices, innovation, and investment. The future of the Internet depends on it.
Forbes
The Significance of Sen. Al Franken’s Call to Impose Net Neutrality on Google, Facebook and Amazon
Antitrust and technology market regulatory interventions are staging a comeback, even in the era of President Donald Trump’s push for broad…
Blog
Federal Communications Commission Rightly Relaxes Media Ownership Rules
The FCC’s announcement that it will relax media ownership rules is good news for consumers. It’s heartening to see the agency act to eliminate…
The Washington Times
Conservatives Fear More Left-Leaning Media with AT&T, Time Warner merger
The Washington Times discusses the AT&T-Time Warner merger with Wayne Crews. The proposed AT&T merger with Time Warner has some conservatives nervous about its…
Blog
Net Neutrality Rules Threaten Internet Free Speech
The supposed good intentions of net neutrality advocates don’t justify the real world harm of those regulations. …
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Wagner, McCaskill Efforts to Go After Backpage Site Attracting Powerful Foes
St. Louis Post-Dispatch covers CEI’s statements in a letter to Congress regarding an internet freedom bill. Efforts by several members of the Missouri…
Blog
Net Neutrality: Market Competition or Political Control?
The Internet is no exception to the rule that markets work better than the federal government does.
Comment
Coalition of 83 Organizations, Elected Officials, and Individuals Submit Comments In the Matter of Restoring Internet Freedom
View Full Document as PDF Dear Chairman Pai, Commissioner O’Rielly, and Commissioner Clyburn: These coalition comments are updated from the July 17,…
Blog
TechFreedom Hosts Policy Summit on Future of Technology Regulation
Our friends at TechFreedom recently treated technology policy nerds in D.C. to a policy summit.
Blog
Protect Free Speech Guarantees of Communications Decency Act
If operators of websites were responsible for what each of their users posted online, they could be on the hook for every potential defamation, infliction…
News Release
President Trump and Net Neutrality Rulemaking at FCC
White House press briefing, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, in reference to the current net neutrality debate, “The Trump administration believes the rules…
Forbes
Net Neutrality Day Of Action Platitudes To Ensnare Corporate Proponents
Amazon, Google, Facebook and others in the tech world…you’re really going to keep poking on net neutrality? Some of you seem a tad less…
Blog
Net Neutrality ‘Day of Action’ Endorses Government Power to Suppress Free Speech
This week's net neutrality “Day of Action” seeks to defend a regulatory regime that ultimately facilities the suppression of free speech by a federal agency:…
The Daily Caller
RAWA: One Casino Billionaire’s Quest to Kill Internet Gambling
The Daily Caller covers the Restoration of America’s Wire Act and cites a paper written by Michelle Minton on the subject. Enter the…
Inside Sources
Point: Net Neutrality Bad for Consumers
The FCC’s proposed rollback of its 2015 Open Internet Order has put the term “net neutrality” back in the political zeitgeist. The phrase itself is…
News Release
CEI Commends FCC Plan to Roll Back Net Neutrality Regulations Threatening Internet Freedom
CEI commends Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's plans for rolling back harmful net neutrality regulations that hamper Internet freedom and consumer access to more…
Blog
Reason TV on the Future of Public Broadcasting
Public broadcasting should embrace the podcast and Netflix revolution for delivering content.
Blog
Public Interest Groups Urge Update of Email Privacy Protections
This week, CEI joined dozens of public interest groups, trade associations, and companies in sending a letter to Congress in support of the…
Blog
Wyoming Considers Disastrous Sales Tax Proposal
The U.S. Supreme Court made clear in the case of Quill v. North Dakota (1992) that Congress, not the individual states, has the authority to regulate…
Blog
Crash Course in Gambling Law for Would-be Attorney General Sessions
Federal law does not ban all online gambling, despite what U.S. Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions has suggested.
Blog
New Congress Needs to Modernize Tech Policy
With respect to tech and telecom, lawmakers should avoid imposing new mandates and prohibitions in response to new technologies that might seem threatening, absent exceptional…
Blog
RealClear Radio Hour: Internet Sales Tax Shakedown and Legal Graft
This week on RealClear Radio Hour, Jessica Melugin and Trevor Burrus discuss freedom from bureaucracy online and political corruption.
Blog
Dueling Narratives on the AT&T-Time Warner “Mega Merger”
This weekend AT&T and Time Warner announced a merger deal and it didn't take long for critics on the left to begin making concerned statements…
Blog
Senators Examine Internet Naming Authority
This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts will hold a hearing entitled “Protecting Internet Freedom: Implications…
Blog
Politics and Economics Collide with Pokémon Go
It seems strange to think it’s been barely a week since Pokémon Go became the dominant pop culture phenomenon of the summer. Publications better known…
Blog
New York Legislature Piles on Fines for Home-Share Listings
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is currently reviewing legislation recently passed by the state’s Senate and Assembly that would establish new penalties for advertising one’s…
Blog
Wireless Net Neutrality: You Were Warned
Hundreds of people have been burrowing into this week’s D.C. District Court of Appeals 2-1 decision giving the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) everything it wanted…
Blog
FCC Cannot Rewrite Federal Law to Regulate the Internet
By upholding the entirety of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Open Internet Order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has sanctioned the…
Blog
Congress Must Rein in FCC on Net Neutrality
Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the FCC’s 2015 “Open Internet Order” in US Telecom Association v. FCC.
Blog
“Open Internet” Ruling Will Encourage ISPs to Block Content
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “Open Internet Order” which purports to implement “net neutrality”…
Argus Leader
Online sales tax coming to your inbox
Argus Leader discusses the online sales tax with CEI's Jessica Melugin. In a letter to Congress in 2013, groups such as Americans for…
Blog
Permanent Moratorium on Internet Taxation in Customs Bill
Today the Senate voted 75-20 in favor of the conference report accompanying H.R. 644, the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, the so-called customs…
Blog
PITFA a Poor Hostage for Internet Sales Taxes
Despite the premise of many a political cartoon, U.S. senators aren’t stupid. But a few of them are hoping to bamboozle at least 60 of their…
Blog
Net Neutrality Questions FCC Commissioners Need to Answer
In a House Energy & Commerce Committee oversight hearing on Tuesday, November 17, all five Federal Communications Commissioners will testify. Net neutrality, the FCC’s broad push…
Blog
What Will a Chaffetz Speakership Mean for Internet Freedom? Part 2
Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz recently threw his hat in the ring in a bid to replace Speaker John Boehner, after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s…
Blog
What Will a Chaffetz Speakership Mean for Internet Freedom?
With House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) gaffe regarding the Benghazi investigation, the race to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appears much more open. Days later,…
Simple Justice
The Public Accommodation Formerly Known As SJ
Simple Justice cites CEI`s Hans Bader on the Americans with Disabilities Act: Walter Olson, at Overlawyered, here and here, Amy Alkon…
Blog
Marketplace Fairness Act Is More about Tax Revenue and Rent-Seeking than Fairness
Yesterday, Sens. Mike Enzi (R-Wy.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) reintroduced the speciously named Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) in the…
Comment
CEI, ICLE, TechFreedom File Comments with FCC in MVPD Definition Proceeding
Full Document Available in PDF In this proceeding, the Commission proposes to expand the definition of a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD)…
MSNBC
Why the FCC’s Vote to Regulate the Internet Is a Mistake
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to regulate Internet providers as public utilities under a 1934 law. President Obama celebrated…